Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!-Chapter 890: Awakening Beneath the White Lake

Ethan’s body now looked like a boiled lobster, his skin flushed a violent red as bubbles streamed endlessly from beneath the surface of the lake. The milky-white water seeped through his pores, forcing its way into his body, drilling inward as if it had a will of its own. The blood within his swollen muscles was squeezed out strand by strand, pushed aside as every muscle fiber filled with that pale substance.

Then the burning began.

The milky-white liquid ignited like gasoline, every single cell in his muscles flaring into searing pain. It was not a single burst, but a sustained, merciless burn that seemed intent on reducing him to nothing. Only after that agony did the substance begin to change, slowly losing its opaque color and transforming into transparent particles of light. Those particles drifted outward and merged seamlessly with the scattered starlight already embedded throughout Ethan’s body.

The process was excruciatingly slow, drawn out to the point where pain lost meaning and became something closer to a constant state of existence.

---

Meanwhile, Ethan’s consciousness remained trapped inside his own Energy Core. In the past, whenever he lost awareness, his mind would always retreat into his Mindscape. This time was different. Instead of sinking inward, he was sealed within the core itself, unable to move, unable to escape.

Time lost all structure. Seconds stretched into something indistinguishable from eternity, and a crushing loneliness welled up from nowhere, pressing down on his spirit. He drifted through endless cycles of falling asleep and waking again, with no sense of progression or relief. How long it lasted, he could not tell.

Then, without warning, he awoke to a blinding eruption of golden light.

The ever-turning celestial orrery before him flared violently, its golden lines expanding outward, drawing closer and closer until they nearly filled his entire field of awareness. His spirit jolted.

Could it be... was he finally getting out?

The answer came almost immediately. His consciousness swelled, expanding beyond the reach of the orrery itself. In that instant, his Senses shuddered violently. The first thing he realized was that he could once again control his consciousness-avatar. The second came when he swept his awareness outward and froze in disbelief.

His entire body, every dormant star that should have been sleeping, was blazing brightly. Before, those points of starlight scattered through him only surfaced when he used Force Resonance. Now, after his coma, they had emerged on their own, and more importantly, they showed no sign of fading.

Alarmed by the change, Ethan rushed his Senses toward his skull.

Boom.

His Mindscape trembled, plunging him into darkness before light slowly returned. He knew then that his consciousness had fully reentered his body.

---

Ethan opened his eyes slowly.

Milky-white filled his vision. He blinked several times, disoriented, until sensation came flooding back and he realized he was suspended in a thick, viscous liquid. Gathering himself, he surged upward with a powerful motion.

Splash.

Water exploded into the air as he burst from the surface.

"Haha! The kid’s alive, and dumb enough to surface! Watch me grab him!"

Ethan had been floating in the white lake the entire time, and none of those bastards had dared jump in after him. They could not simply blast him either. Kill him outright, and the spirit artifacts would vanish with him. Now that he had emerged, opportunity had finally presented itself.

A shaggy-bearded man on the bank lit up with excitement and charged straight at Ethan while he was still mid-air, yelling as he went.

Ethan, however, was still dazed. After what felt like eons trapped inside his Energy Core, returning to the physical world felt unreal. The bearded man’s shouting snapped his attention back into focus. Ethan tilted his head slightly, confused. He did not recognize this man, and yet the bastard was already winding up an attack, both hands reaching out to seize him.

"Get the fuck out of my face."

Ethan twisted in mid-air. His hand flickered, seeming to vanish for a brief instant. When it reappeared, it was already pressed against the bearded man’s face.

Smack.

It was as if his palm had teleported across space. The man never even considered dodging. Ethan’s signature strike landed cleanly, and the bearded head burst apart like a rotten watermelon.

Several others had been right behind him, hoping to beat him to the prize. Watching their frontrunner’s head explode on contact froze them in place. Terror and disbelief flooded their faces, and they nearly fell out of the air as they scrambled backward in panic.

Ethan hovered there, spattered with gore, the shock snapping him fully awake.

---

Boom. Boom.

Explosions thundered in the distance. Ethan followed the sound, his eyes narrowing as his Senses spread outward. There were multiple battlefields. Beastie, Aqua, Gale, Oblivion, Yaya, Luna, all of them were fighting. There was also another clash, one involving a massive black dog.

Their opponents were the same crowd surrounding him now, faces from every nation. The huge black dog was locked in combat with a blonde, blue-eyed woman. It clearly seemed to be on his side, yet Ethan had no idea where it had come from or why it was helping him.

There was no time to think about that.

While he had been unconscious, these bastards had attacked, and his spirit artifacts had emerged on their own to protect him. But as Ethan surveyed the battlefield, his fury ignited. The little ones were flickering faintly. Aqua, that gentle girl, had a bloody gash carved across her cheek.

Spirit artifacts were supposed to be beings of pure spirit. Even in human form, they should not bleed. And yet these children did, as if they had real flesh and blood.

The scene was chaos. Yaya was being crushed while fighting three opponents at once. Luna was holding her own against two, barely. The rest were each locked in single combat, struggling desperately. None of the hunters were trying to kill them outright. They were playing with them, wounding them again and again.

Even Yaya had lost one of her vines, hacked clean off.

The black dog clearly held the advantage, yet the blonde woman kept it pinned, refusing to let it break free. Ethan spared the dog one last puzzled glance. He could question it later.

Right now, he was furious. Every one of those children was hurt.

"You’re all dead."

Ethan’s flight path curved sharply as he shot toward the battlefield, not even realizing until that moment that he was flying. His body became a living projectile.

Boom.

He slammed into the large black man fighting Aqua like a cannonball. The distance between them vanished in an instant. The man never even saw it coming. Ethan’s fist smashed into his face before his body could react.

Crunch.

The man tried to block, but his arms barely twitched. Ethan’s punch went straight through his skull, and the dark, bald head exploded into fragments.

Ethan did not stop. He spun in mid-air and kicked backward, aiming for the man fighting Gale.

The moment Ethan killed the dark skinned man, everyone noticed. Terror rippled through the battlefield. The other man saw the kick coming and lashed out confidently with his own leg. Kicks were his specialty, the very thing he had been using to dominate Gale. He was a notorious name on the Dark List, famous for his so-called unbreakable iron legs.

Crack.

Just as a smug smile began to curl at the corner of his mouth, a sharp snapping sound rang out, cutting it short.